A quiet life, an important neighbour

Date: February 13 2013

Ella Ide

POPE BENEDICT XVI will retire to a monastery tucked away inside the historic walls of the Holy See. So once the new Pope is elected there will be a former pontiff and his successor living in the Vatican.

Pope Benedict, 85, will temporarily stay at the papal summer house at Castel Gandolfo near Rome.

During that time, the Mater Ecclesiae monastery building within the Vatican grounds - an oasis of calm with its own vegetable garden and blooming flowerbeds - will be renovated.

The Vatican said it expected his successor to be elected for Easter. It will be the first time in centuries that a Pope and a former Pope are alive at the same time.

''When the Pope retires he will first move to Castel Gandolfo and then, when the restoration works are finished, he will move to the Vatican, to the monastery in the Vatican's gardens,'' a Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi, said. ''I don't think he will be a recluse,'' Father Lombardi added.

'It's an unprecedented situation, we'll see how it goes.

''He has often said that he wanted to dedicate his old age to writing and study, and I imagine he will do so.''

The monastery - the only one within the Vatican's walls - was built in 1992 after Pope John Paul II said he wished to create a space to house those who dedicate their lives to contemplation.

Spread over three floors, the complex has 12 monastic cells upstairs, and the ground floor houses a kitchen, living room, library and chapel.

The cells are sparsely furnished: the only decorations are wooden crosses and a few paintings of religious life, according to the Vatican.

A stone's throw from St Peter's Basilica, the monastery has housed Benedictine nuns, Poor Clares - an order founded by St Clare of Assisi and inspired by St Francis of Assisi - and sisters from the order of the Visitation of Holy Mary.

Agence France-Presse

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